Directed by Wang Bing | 215 mins | 2023
Wang’s ongoing project of documenting the social and economic transformation of 21st-century China as reflected in the lives of those buffeted by the country’s emergence as an industrial powerhouse continues with "Youth (Spring)", a deeply empathetic account of the everyday routine of young migrant workers laboring in textile factories in the town of Zhili, outside Shanghai, and living together in their crowded dormitories. Shot over the course of five years, "Youth (Spring)" is an extraordinary portrait of the resilience and hope—often frustrated—of its subjects, most in their twenties, seeking to assert their humanity in these intense environments.